Matell
03-08-2005, 08:34 PM
Today as I was about 15km from work I had a rather unsettling fright. I saw thin white/grey smoke billowing out from behind my car in the rear view mirror. I was doing about just a wee bit over the speed limit at the time:D, and not long after seeing it I could smell burning oil even when the air-con was in recirc.
Not a good look for a Euro!. I first thought maybe the DC Header had failed and it was raw exhaust, however that didn't add up for many reasons, the engine still felt good temp was fine, and no indications of failing oil pressure. So fearing a fire (OMG I only thought that happened to American Cars!!!!.....namely Saturn’s ;)) I pulled over and had a look.
Without the forward airflow there was a fair bit of smoke coming from under the bonnet and under the car. Looked underneath and the cat converter (no lower heat shield) was smoking like a chimney! The underside of the car was also covered in very clear clean and new smelling oil...only one thing that could be.... manual transmission fluid. I immediately thought they mustn't have reinstalled one of the filler/drain plugs 3 weeks or 2800km ago when I had the MT fluid changed during my 40,000km service (I have it done every 10K km). So nothing I could do about it at the time, so I drove to work much slower so the cat wouldn't be as hot and the amount of smoke reduced.....or that could've also indicated I had almost no fluid left :(. When I pulled out of the car park at work there was a polka dot cover of oil almost the size of the footprint of my car!:thumbdwn:
I then took it to Blue Ribbon Motors (Honda Dealer and Service Centre) and they diagnosed it as two closure plugs that had come loose on the transmission housing near the clutch cable engagement fingers. The removed them, put sealant on them (Loctite hopefully) and topped up the transmission. All done under warranty no questions asked (I don't even get it serviced there) and the gave me a lift to work and picked me up again. A big :thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup:to them!. Best of all no mention was made of my mods, and they cleaned everything up including the pretty blue Cusco brace. I think they want my 50,000km service :p
So in the end a tentatively happy outcome. My main concern is that I wouldn't have thought those closure plugs would've been touched since manufacture and assembly in Japan!. This is something I wasn't expecting from Honda. But if the transmission craps out soon I might be able to blame it on that and have them install a new clutch, flywheel and DC5R LSD!!!! yeeeheeeee....Who am I kidding.....I could be selling her soon.:(
Not a good look for a Euro!. I first thought maybe the DC Header had failed and it was raw exhaust, however that didn't add up for many reasons, the engine still felt good temp was fine, and no indications of failing oil pressure. So fearing a fire (OMG I only thought that happened to American Cars!!!!.....namely Saturn’s ;)) I pulled over and had a look.
Without the forward airflow there was a fair bit of smoke coming from under the bonnet and under the car. Looked underneath and the cat converter (no lower heat shield) was smoking like a chimney! The underside of the car was also covered in very clear clean and new smelling oil...only one thing that could be.... manual transmission fluid. I immediately thought they mustn't have reinstalled one of the filler/drain plugs 3 weeks or 2800km ago when I had the MT fluid changed during my 40,000km service (I have it done every 10K km). So nothing I could do about it at the time, so I drove to work much slower so the cat wouldn't be as hot and the amount of smoke reduced.....or that could've also indicated I had almost no fluid left :(. When I pulled out of the car park at work there was a polka dot cover of oil almost the size of the footprint of my car!:thumbdwn:
I then took it to Blue Ribbon Motors (Honda Dealer and Service Centre) and they diagnosed it as two closure plugs that had come loose on the transmission housing near the clutch cable engagement fingers. The removed them, put sealant on them (Loctite hopefully) and topped up the transmission. All done under warranty no questions asked (I don't even get it serviced there) and the gave me a lift to work and picked me up again. A big :thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup:to them!. Best of all no mention was made of my mods, and they cleaned everything up including the pretty blue Cusco brace. I think they want my 50,000km service :p
So in the end a tentatively happy outcome. My main concern is that I wouldn't have thought those closure plugs would've been touched since manufacture and assembly in Japan!. This is something I wasn't expecting from Honda. But if the transmission craps out soon I might be able to blame it on that and have them install a new clutch, flywheel and DC5R LSD!!!! yeeeheeeee....Who am I kidding.....I could be selling her soon.:(